The present invention relates generally to a chew toy for animals. Specifically, the invention relates to a process for making rawhide chew toys.
Conventional rawhide chew toys come in various shapes and sizes, for example: bones, rolls, donuts, pretzels, sticks, chips, munchie, and ground-and-pressed products. A process for making conventional rawhide chew toys is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,988,045 issued to Fisher on Jun. 13, 1961. As described by Fisher, conventional rawhide chew toys are made from processed animal skins. The animal skins are de-haired and cleaned, leaving xe2x80x9cwet rawhide.xe2x80x9d This wet rawhide may be formed into shapes, if desired, and then dried, upon which the chew toy becomes hard and bone-like.
Rawhide chew toy manufacturers have traditionally applied various flavors and coatings topically to dried rawhide to attract the animal to the rawhide chew toy. Coatings or bastings are applied to the surface of the dried rawhide by spraying a solution on the dried rawhide or by dipping the dried rawhide in the solution. Such coatings are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,653 issued to Sherrill on Oct. 7, 1997 (see Col. 1, lines 55-59).
A problem with these conventional rawhide chew toys is that after the coating is licked off the rawhide chew toy, there is less incentive for the animal to continue chewing and the animal frequently loses interest in the rawhide chew toy. As a result, the animal owner may discard the chew toy before it is completely chewed and buy a new chew toy that still has the flavoring applied to the surface of the dried rawhide. In addition, coatings applied to the surface of the dried rawhide are easily rubbed off causing stains on carpet, etc. Further, any nutrients added to the solution and applied to the surface of the dried rawhide will not remain in the rawhide during the chewing process.
As a result of these and other drawbacks to the prior art, there is a need in the industry for an improved rawhide chew toy that will retain flavoring during various phases of being chewed, provide a vehicle for delivering nutrients to animals, and is less likely to create stains upon being chewed by an animal.
An object of the invention is to provide a process for producing a rawhide chew toy, comprising combining a marinade with wet rawhide; applying vacuum pressure to the combined marinade and wet rawhide; releasing the vacuum pressure; and drying the marinated rawhide.
In a further aspect of the invention, the vacuum pressure applied to the combined marinade and wet rawhide is between 5 and 25 in. Hg.
In a further aspect of the invention, the combined marinade and wet rawhide are tumbled during the step of applying vacuum pressure.
In another aspect of the invention, nutrients, such as, vitamins, minerals, dental additives, or herbal remedies may be added to the marinade.